Why Panda is given the black eye

P. Waytha Moorthy, who is diabetic, has begun fainting from his prolonged hunger strike.

Hindraf released a press statement today to clarify his deteriorating condition as well as to add: “When they [minorities] speak up, they will be beaten down as being sectarian or racist.”

“Beaten down as being sectarian or racist”

The Star pays a dividend of RM60 million a year to its owner the MCA, Dr Chua Soi Lek was quoted as saying in an interview (18 Feb 2009).

So then, let’s examine the nature of the beast.

Today is the 20th day of Waytha’s fast which started on March 10 — duration marked in the yellow boxes on the calendar above.

The Star did not give the hunger strike any coverage until Waytha was invited to meet the Prime Minister on March 25. On the following day, The Star Online did a short follow-up to its story with regard to the Putrajaya meeting.

Outside of the PM angle (see screenshot below), there was no interest at all shown by The Star. Google result on Past Month in ‘thestar.com.my’.

Hindraf Indians to refrain from voting

Below are some excerpts from the last article to be penned by Waytha for his ‘Hunger Strike’ writings. He’s now too weak to continue with the series.

“If they [BN and Pakatan] remain silent or ambivalent [on the blueprint], then we in Hindraf will project it to mean they do not support a program of comprehensive and permanent correction to the socio-economic problems of the Indian poor – that they do not care about the Indian poor. This therefore will form the central message from us to our base.”

Waytha receiving visitors in Rawang

The Hindraf chairman also added they would encourage poor Indians to abstain from voting either BN or Pakatan:

“We will make absolutely sure that this [i.e. “it does not really make any difference who wins in these elections”] is the message that the Indian poor will hear.”

According to him, the logic of the strategic abstention is simple — as neither side of the political divide cares, therefore neither side deserves the votes of the Hindraf constituency.

MCA most affected by Hindraf boycott

Waytha believes that this decision will affect the marginal seats in Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and Johor. These are the seats with an electorate of more than 10 percent Indian.

Seven out of the 15 Parliament seats currently held by the MCA have an Indian electorate surpassing 10 percent.

While the Hindraf abstention manoeuvre is not likely to have much of an impact on most of the Malay-majority Umno seats located in the rural areas, it will nonetheless affect the mixed seats along the West Coast where MCA has been depending on the Malay and Indian voters to pull through.

In my considered opinion, Hindraf will carry out its threat to call upon poor Indians to refrain from voting.

The Jerusubang Star

The Hindraf press release today said that both BN and Pakatan leaders appeared not to be much concerned about Waytha’s worsening condition.

Hindraf also believed that this indifference currently shown their fasting chairman is similarly extended to their view of the Indian poor.

We’re already familiar with the Pakatan behaviour, so let’s look at the BN side.

I do not see that MCA has anytime in the past five years made any great effort to woo the poor Indian voters. It is a case of ‘Yang dikejar (undi Kristian) tak dapat, yang dikendong (undi orang India Hindu) tercicir’.

Yet even as recently as last week, the window of opportunity was still open for the MCA to show some niceness. Umno president Najib did make an overture after all. But no, the MCA failed to proffer any humane gesture.

Instead the highly selective coverage accorded by MCA cash cow The Star spoke volumes. It is evident that the paper’s reporters do not have a good rapport with Hindraf, unlike their chummy cosiness with the DAP 2.0 evangelist politicians.

Who will vote MCA?

Following all those efforts to promote DAP 2.0 that was diligently carried out by The Star, the MCA has now lost the Chinese vote even more substantially. (The opposition’s 64% Chinese support in 2008 has increased to 85%.)

One black eye for the MCA.

The party has not managed to corner the Christian middle-class Indian, urban professional vote either. (Of course not!) The second sock to the eye for the MCA.

And on top of alienating the Malay vote, MCA should expect to lose the Indian working class vote too, due to the anticipated Hindraf boycott.

Well according to Mkini (and curious how it is Ram Anand, who wrote the piece), “PKR unfazed by Hindraf’s meeting with PM”.

From the article according to PKR’s N.Surendren : ““It will absolutely not (affect Indian support). I’m not greatly concerned. We are confident, regardless of whether Hindraf is with us or not,” Surendran added, stressing that his party has already agreed “in principle” to the Hindraf blueprint.”

DAP’s Charles Santiago sounds ominuos when “He predicted that Hindraf “will come around”, emphasising that the NGO has “no other alternative” than to return to the Pakatan fold.

PR does have the middle class Indian vote and perhaps the middle class Hindu vote. How much influence Hindraf has with the disenfranchised remains to be seen.

I believe that they may be able to sway the vote but I think at this time, abstaining from the election is the way to go. I do have one wish though, that with this election the MIC is buried once and for all.

(My response below is not directed to Conrad as it would be carrying coal to Newcastle. However this spot is an opportune space to put out my views on the matter.)

re: “PR does have the middle class Indian vote and perhaps the middle class Hindu vote. How much influence Hindraf has with the disenfranchised remains to be seen.”

When the English-speaking middle class are noisy, they are not labelled as “violent and racist” (Guan Eng’s words to describe the demos against his administration in Penang).

The disenfranchised have NO VOICE. This is the reason that the Hindraf rhetoric has to be more strident to amplify the voiceless — because they are shouted down by the self-righteous “Beyond Race” Bangsar Malaysians.

The Malaysian Firsters who bully Hindraf have their voices heard everywhere b’cos they’re not only the Kings of Cyberspace but there is the Star Media Group with its audience of 5.63 million at their service.

re: “I believe that they may be able to sway the vote but I think at this time, abstaining from the election is the way to go. I do have one wish though, that with this election the MIC is buried once and for all.”

Not sure about MIC but I expect MCA and Gerakan to be buried. RIP (Rust in Peace), good job Scissors.

A lot of ‘ no truth’ in Hindraf’s so call strugglle. I personally opine that obviously, there is not enough very poor Indian in Malaysia that summon for a hunger strike. Many Indian also feel the same as I am.

Practically NO response on the hunger strike, only Helen is trying very hard to make it known and trying to push the idea of Hindraf = Indian votes. The fact remains and can be seen, the hunger strike will result in a “stray dog death” and the worse of them all, the Hindraf movement will die as well…. And in shame!

*** re: “not enough very poor Indian in Malaysia that summon for a hunger strike”

Statistics aside, I think we can all use our own eyes to see.

*** re: “Many Indian also feel the same as I am.”

When you say “many Indians”, I allow that you could be referring to your own personal experience just like when readers says “many Malays”, it could also refer to their own social circles.

‘Mathias Gomes’ – cited in my earlier posting – wrote in his Letter to the Editor:

“The almost 30,000 crowd on Nov 25, 2007 at the KLCC area converged because of only one factor, the motivation of 1 million pounds for each Indian in Malaysia, Waytha promised to sue the British Government for about 4 Trillion pounds …”

To this Matthias Gomes individual who is a mind-reader, a total of 30,000 Indians had participated in the 2007 Hindraf rally because each of them hoped to collect one million pounds.

*** re: “Practically NO response on the hunger strike, only Helen is trying very hard to make it known and trying to push the idea of Hindraf = Indian votes.”

Yes my dear, there was indeed “practically NO response on the hunger strike” in The Star. However I was informed that there was some coverage in the Tamil papers.

However there was a response from the Prime Minister cum BN chairman cum Umno president who invited Hindraf for a meeting in Putrajaya. Was Najib persuaded to the idea of Hindraf = [a segment of] Indian votes?

*** re: “The fact remains and can be seen, the hunger strike will result in a “stray dog death” and the worse of them all, the Hindraf movement will die as well…. And in shame!”

I too wonder how far Waytha is willing to push his hunger strike.

If he dies, the Hindraf movement will not die. Instead it will get a new lease of life from his martyrdom.
*** re: “And in shame!”

I dunno. Look at the ‘Lim Guan Eng went to jail for the sake of a Malay girl’ urban legend.

I would have thought, now, with that episode, people should have realised that the three Yang Arifs (JCA Gopal Sri Ram, JCA Siti Norma Yaakob & JCA Denis Ong) made a wise and most judicious decision to put the country’s foremost hate-monger behind bars.

But among the Dapsters, there is no stigma (“shame”) of Convict or Jailbird where their hero is concerned. And Guan Eng didn’t even have to die to be conferred the mythological mythical status of ‘Saviour of Underaged Malay Girl Sent to Correction Home’.

Just curious moya, how many poor Indian would be sufficient to legitimize a hunger strike? 100 or 1000 or 18473 perhaps? Or maybe it is correlated by % of poor Indians against the total Indian population of the state?

Isn’t one poor Indian or for that matter, poor Malaysian regardless of race is one too many? Reality dictates that no country in the world can eradicate poverty totally but if it means making life better for even a small segment of society, shouldn’t it be supported?

It is ironic that N Surendran actually dismissed Hindraf as per Conrad’s comment previously. Why so you may ask?

Well, he’s at the forefront of accusing cops of Indian genocide screaming scurrilously till he’s blue in the face that one death in police custody is one death too many. And to make martyrs of suspected criminals when plenty of Indians can’t even afford a proper meal a day is misguided, even for the staunchest of apologists.

That is why they say quality is more important than quantity, because quality is self drive by passion, sincere effort, spiritual direction and skillful execution. It is not an act but becomes a habit even when it is against the tide. As for quantity, it is always like a lalang and a reproduction, where the wind blows or how it waves.

The recognition of quality may take a longer time but eventually it is there especially when you deal with humanity, truth and reality.

Moya, you underestimate the spiritual & mental strength of HINDRAF. You can only obtain it when there is humanity intact irrespective of the religion or practice.

Waythamoorthy is not going to die “as you say ” stray dog death”. He has galvanized the human consciousness in Malaysia, opened the eyes of not just the Indians but also other fellow Malaysians on the issues for the poorer segment of the fellow Malaysian Indians.

How far he or HINDRAF will go is the will of the people of Malaysian not purely restricted to Malaysian Indians when they unite to address humane issues that had stalked the poorer segment of the Malaysian Indians with a blinkered view both individually and through policies.

Moya,if you chose to comment based on your shallow opinion, that is your choice, but you alone don’t represent the rest of the community.Trust me his effort will not go to avail as it reminds us that we still have a heartbeat amongst Malaysians for the truth and reality for the community without just a self derived heartbeat only for myself.

Sorry to divert. I think LGE’s reply to CAP shows how hypocritical he is. He is pushing one of the worst piratisation scheme ever. He’s a con man. I call him tokong pirate.

Previously he was against mega project. He was against bn toll rates as it’s at a pirate profiteering rate. Now saying he wants to impose toll based on bn rate. Worse he condemn bn model of enrinching concessionaire with toll collection. In his Penang scheme, concessionaire not only collect toll but also obtain scarce prime land of Penang. Memang tokong pirate.

Should any party be blamed over the poor indian people in this country then it should be MIC.

What has MIC been doing since the day Hindraf starts to demonstrate their unhappiness over the system that failed to recognised their plight and misery?

MIC being the main party that represents the indian community has been doing a bad job after so many years and that is why a fraction of malaysian indian is left behind.

However, how bad is the situation is this small fraction indian? Isn’t there a small fraction of malays and chinese too?

Well,as this seems to be the weaknesses of racial based political party, I dare not place the blame to the party itself when there are individuals in the party plays kronisme, nepotisme and bribe and it happened to be spreading accross the nation including the Pakatan Rakyat.

As resulted before in history when one man really make a difference, Waytha’s has made a copy of what Mahatma Gandhi has done before but on difference purposes. When Gandhi’s hunger strike is to unite the nation, Waytha’s hunger strike is to gain attention from any political side who have the power to get the indian poor to the next level with a small offering of votes.

Analysing the current political scenario, he is indeed playing a dangerous game without guarantee that the indian poor will get any…..even though he may lose his life.

Thank you for writing this sentence — “Waytha’s hunger strike is to gain attention from any political side who have the power to get the indian poor to the next level with a small offering of votes.” [and using his health-body as the bargaining chip]